#WEARECOL

Heroic Kael’thas Boss Guide

BY Andrew Miesner / December 3, 2020

Written and produced by Crzypck

Special thanks to our consulting team: Tagzz, Xyronic, and Ftbubbler

Sun King’s Salvation (Kael’thas)

This is a single-phase fight with a similar structure to Valithria Dreamwalker in ICC. Kael’thas starts at 10% HP, and the goal of the encounter is to heal him to full. Constant waves of a variety of adds will try and prevent you from achieving this.

 

  • You’ll begin the encounter by fighting against High Torturer Darithos, two Bleakwing Assassins, and four Vile Occultists.
  • High Torturer Darithos
    • Big dude who doesn’t really do much
    • Casts Greater Castigation periodically at several players
    • Deals 2600 Shadow every 0.5s to anyone within 6 yards of the targeted players
    • Other than that, he just kinda chills tbh
  • Shade of Kael’thas
    • When regular Kael reaches 45% and 90% HP, a Shade of Kael’thas spawns to fight you
      • The Shade always has whatever % HP Kael’thas is missing
      • First Shade spawns with 55% HP, second he’s at 10%
    • When the Shade is active, Kael cannot be healed.
      • HOWEVER, any damage dealt to the Shade heals Kael’thas
  • Smouldering Remnant
    • Fire pool on the ground, deals 7800 Fire/1s when standing in it. Dropped by several abilities during the Shade
    • These do not despawn on Heroic difficulty, and will persist the remainder of the encounter.
  • Fiery Strike
    • Deals 6200 Fire damage in a frontal cone
    • Also applies Burning Remnants, DoT that deals 1800 Fire/1s for 15s
  • Ember Blast
    • Meteor-style ability. Targets a random player, and blasts them for 78k Fire damage. This damage is split between anyone within 6 yards
    • Also applies a total of 6 stacks of Lingering Embers
      • 1500 Fire/1s for 15s DoT. Stacks.
    • Drops a Smouldering Remnant
  • Blazing Surge
    • At 100 energy, casts a massive cone blast
    • Deals 15k Fire to anyone hit
    • This is targeted towards a random player in the raid
    • Drops Smouldering Remnants
  • Reborn Phoenix
    • A cute little Phoenix spawns. He just wants to eat you, hungry little guy!
    • Fixates on a random player, and pulses every 2.5s
      • Anyone within 6 yards of a pulse takes 3900 Fire damage
      • Each pulse also drops a Smouldering Remnant.
    • When the Phoenix reaches 0HP, it turns into a pile of ash. The pile heals itself 5% per second. At 100% HP, the Phoenix pops back up and starts over
    • After the first Shade reaches 45%, it despawns. When the second Shade reaches 0%, you win the encounter.
  • Smaller Adds
    • There are 5 types of smaller adds you’ll need to deal with throughout the fight
    • Bleakwing Assassins
      • Cast Crimson Flurry
        • Teleport behind a random marked player, dealing 11k Physical to anyone within 8 yards
        • There’s a red targeting circle to indicate targets
        • Also applies a DoT, deals 2100 Physical/1second for 10s
      • Return to Stone
        • At full energy, these turn to stone for 8s, healing to full HP.
        • If they die before reaching full energy, they don’t do this. Just something to consider.
  • Vile Occultist
    • Vulgar Brand
      • Deals 1200 Shadow to the whole raid
      • Also debuffs all players, causing 35% increased damage taken
      • This can be interrupted, could be important
      • The debuff can also be dispelled
    • Scornful Blast
      • Simple cast, deals 3900 Shadow damage to the target. Cannot be interrupted
    • Door of Shadows
      • These buggers can teleport around the room trying to run away from you. Hope you’re good at tag!
    • Rockbound Vanquisher
      • Vanquishing Strike
        • Deals 12k Physical to the tank, and applies a DoT
          • DoT deals 2500 Physical/1s for 20s. Stacks.
      • Concussive Smash
        • AoE smash, deals 7800 Physical to the whole raid
        • Also increases the Vanquisher’s damage dealt by 25%. Stacks.
    • Soul Infuser
      • These buggers run straight to Kael’thas to cast Soul Infusion and ignore the raid
        • Soul Infusion deals 1% of Kael’s max HP every 2s
        • If the Shade of Kael’thas is active, they instead heal the Shade 1% every 2s.
    • Pestering Fiend
      • Shattering Ruby
        • Throws a ruby at a random player, dealing 2k Physical within a 3 yard range of the target.
      • Fragmentation
        • Explodes upon death, dealing 3900 Physical within 7 yards
  • Throughout the encounter, there are a few mechanics which aid you in healing Kael’thas
    • Infuser’s Orb
      • Small orb on the ground, dropped by a Soul Infuser when it dies.
      • Interacting with it gives you 50% increased healing done for 14s, stacks.
    • Essence Font
      • Dropped by Occultists when they die. These can be directly healed by your raid.
      • When a Font is healed to full, it’ll heal Kael’thas for 1% of his max HP
      • These “leak” overtime, decaying in health. If not healed to full, they’ll “die” and despawn
      • In testing, these had about 0.5% the healthpool as Kael’thas, making these twice as efficient as just direct-healing Kael
    • Soul Pedestal
      • There are 4 Pedestals near the front of the room. Clicking it starts a channel, transferring your health to Kael’thas.
      • Your damage taken increases each tick
      • After your channel ends, or you cancel it, you’ll get a debuff preventing you from using a Pedestal for 2 minutes
    • These three mechanics are more efficient at healing Kael than directly casting heals on him

Strategy

  • The whole idea of this encounter is to heal Kael’thas to full as quickly as possible
  • At the beginning of the encounter, you’ll want to group up all the adds on top of Darithos and AoE everything down. 
    • While fighting Darithos, the raid should be loosely spread to not overlap Greater Castigation on too many people.
    • If you don’t spread, this’ll just blow up your raid nearly instantly, resulting in either good laughs or angry yells
    • Also remember there are two Assassins at the start, and these guys teleport and deal AoE damage within 8 yards
      • 100% want to annihilate these guys before they reach full energy, or you’re gonna have a bad time
    • Make sure to interrupt the Occultists’ Vulgar Brand casts
    • Ideally you want to blow all of the little adds and Darithos up as quickly as possible
      • The faster you nuke them, the more downtime you’ll have before the next adds spawn
      • This is important because you can use the downtime to have players channel all 4 Pedestals and pump some health into KT
      • Once the Occultists are dead, healers should bomb healing into the Essence Fonts
  • Your DPS should be prioritizing channeling the Pedestals any time there aren’t adds to hit, and even when there are only 2-3 adds left alive
    • These are very efficient at healing KT, so channeling whenever possible helps dramatically
  • Once adds spawn again, just deal with each wave as they come
    • Tanks will want to stay below 3 stacks of Vanquishing Strike from the Vanquishers
    • Make sure you move away from the Fiends when they’re about to die. The explosion is quite dangerous
      • If you’re a Blood DK or VDH, you can troll someone by AoE Gripping the Fiends on top of someone when they’re low HP. Time it correctly, and the explosions will kill your intended target. Feel free to tag me on twitter with videos of this!! (@crzypck)
    • When Soul Infusers spawn, they are absolutely #1 target priority. All DPS should hard-focus the Infusers as quickly as possible
      • These guys aren’t really dangerous to you, but the fact they drain KT’s HP is really bad. They can set you back very quickly
    • Keep dealing with the Occultists and Assassins as you did when Darithos was up
  • When KT reaches 45%, you get the first Shade
    • Adds do not spawn when the Shade was active
    • Because of this, you’ll want to try pushing KT to 45% in between add spawns, or about 10 seconds after a new set of adds just spawned
    • Dealing with the Shade is relatively straightforward. 
      • Tanks should immediately move the Shade to the Eastern side of the room
        • Remember, the fire puddles do not despawn, so you need to carefully manage them and ensure you have space to work with
      • The people fixated by the Phoenixes need to obviously run away from them
        • Do NOT go near the middle of the room if fixated.
        • Try to drag them around the room towards the eastern edge. Due to their pulsing AoE, dragging them through the raid means you’re gonna have a bad time
      • Blow up the Phoenixes. This’ll further help to minimize the number of puddles, giving you more room
      • You’ll want 4-6 people helping soak the Ember Blast. 
      • If you’re near the person targeted by Blazing Surge, try to move out of it. 
        • The damage from this isn’t lethal, but give your healers a break. They’re carrying this shit. 
      • Tanks should swap at 3-4 stacks of Fiery Strike
      • Don’t stand in the fire puddles. It’s fire. It’s hot. It hurts. 
    • Keep pumping into the Shade, when he reaches 45% HP he’ll despawn and you’ll go back to fighting the adds
  • From here, it’s basically rinse and repeat. Manage the packs of adds, heal KT, keep your raid alive. 
  • When Kael’thas reaches 90% HP, the final Shade will spawn.
    • Works just like the first shade. However, you can just tank in the middle of the room
    • Use the entire area for the Phoenixes, don’t worry about consolidating space. Just survive the mechanics coming at you.
    • When the 2nd Shade dies, you win. GG, collect your epic lewtz